Amant Mascarade
by Sugar Waffle
Summary: Sora is a freshman in high school where he attends with his friends, Kairi and Riku. During a detention, his life changes forever when he meets Cloud Strife. AU. CloudSora
1. Sweat

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters (I want to, though). They are all copyrighted to Square Enix.

Author's Note: My first fanfic that has more than one chapter! X3 is excited I've been planning this one for awhile, but was too lazy to start until now...blame the educational system. Anywho..this, of course, shall be Cloud/Sora with a bit o' Cloud/Riku (maybe, maybe not..), Cloud/Leon (if anyone is surprised at this one I will _smack_ you ), and Sora/Riku (Kairi/Sora..? eh..nah, more of a friendship thing there..one of the few people who doesn't hate Kairi ) and just a little _tiny_ bit of Cloud/Aeris. I hope you enjoy it and remember: Reviews are your friend! Oh..and no name yet! ;;

Warnings: Eh..nothing really..it's just the first chapter, after all! A bit of flirting (mostly directed to Sora, of course).

_Chapter One_

_Sweat _

"Riku, wait up!" called a brown haired boy, "Kairi!"

The two high school students slowed to a stop, letting their friend catch up. The girl, Kairi, tried her best not to laugh while the older boy, Riku, rolled his eyes.

"Stop waking up late," he snorted, running his hand through his silver hair, "I can't believe you can't figure out how to work that alarm clock!"

"Riku," Kairi gently hit him on his shoulder, "Be nice to Sora, it's not his fault his clock is _so_ complicated.."

Both of them cracked up at this remark, making Sora blush, which got them laughing even harder. Now ticked off, Sora crossed his arms across his chest, doing his famous pout. His friends saw this and stopped their laughter.

"Oh, Sora.." Kairi began, "Not the pout, you know I always give in when you do that!"

"Yeah," Riku said, "That's a cheap move.."

Grinning triumphetly, Sora put his arms around the two, slightly shocked that Riku actually fell for the pout; He was the only person who was able to resist it.

When they reached school and said their goodbyes to Kairi, who had a different schedule than the boys, Sora lowered his voice, "Hey, Riku..how come you gave up so easily?"

The silver haired boy blinked, not getting the question. Suddenly, a sly smile appeared on his lips as he leaned in close to Sora, so his nose was barely touching the other's, "Because you looked so damn cute."

Sora's heart skipped a beat and his face flushed over. He wasn't sure if Riku was joking or not; It was hard to tell with him. Glancing quickly towards the empty hallway, making sure they were alone and that no one was taping this in case Riku was playing a prank, he stuttered, "Erm..uh.."

Riku laughed, his eyes twinkling in amusement, "You really are hopeless, Sora," he patted his friend on the head, "One little compliment and you're blushing like crazy!"

"I..I..shut up!" he was clearly annoyed, "I'm telling Kairi that you're abusing me!"

The older boy merely smirked and continued on to his homeroom, "You should really stop running to her, men don't usually hide behind their women."

Sora watched him leave, still mad but confused at the same time; Riku never did say that he was kidding about the cute comment.

The only subject that Sora was able to stay awake in was P.E., and that was just because the teachers gave you no chance to sleep. The whole period all you were busy doing something, from trying to impress the girls' volleyball team or struggling with the temptation to pass out from exhaustion. At the moment, he was doing the latter.

"Come _on_ Sora," Tidus pleaded, tugging on Sora's arm, "You're lagging behind! Without you we can't do a two-on-two match!" He pointed towards Riku and Wakka, who were waiting impatiently, Wakka with a basketball in hand.

"Fine," he replied crossly, "But no cheating this time!"

Wakka laughed nervously, looking at another direction, "I did not cheat, how was I suppose to know that you're not allowed to throw your opponent?"

"It's called common sense," Riku took the ball from Wakka and bounced it, "Now, are we gonna play or what?"

The group nodded, but before they began the game Riku added, "Alright, but loser does the winning team's laundry for a month." Tidus and Sora quickly glanced at each other: They were never able to beat Riku before. After a minute or two, they agreed to the bet. "Great, let's play!"

The game quickly ended, Riku's team victorious. Tidus, not able to accept defeat, placed the blame on Sora missing the ball a few times. "I think you're the only one who should be doing the laundry!"

"What!" the brunette gasped, not able to believe that Tidus _actually_ thought it was his fault, "You lost too, so you can't leave me with all the work!"

Frowning, Tidus picked up his gym bag and walked to the locker room. "You owe me anyway, for the time I let the teacher blame me for breaking that vase, 'member?"

Realizing that he lost the arguement, Sora sighed helplessly, "Will the pout work?"

"Not this time."

With that, Tidus left Sora alone in the gym to pity himself in private.

Defeated, Sora plopped down on the wooden floor, wondering why he agreed to the bet. They never won against Riku, he knew that..but the image of a sweaty Riku running across the court, pushing against him, falling on top of him...

He shooked the image out of his mind. I'm going to have to ask Kairi about this later, he thought to himself. When he finally started to relax, the first bell rang, reminding him that he still had a period left before school ended for the day. With a grunt, he stood up and headed for the locker room, satisfied that he would be able to change alone, withouth fear of other boys watching him. But, to his disappointment, there was still someone there.

He was tall, even taller than Riku, which gave Sora the impression that he was a senior. His blond hair was spiked, similiar to Sora's own hair style. Also like Sora, he had blue eyes, but the blond's were different. They seemed to give off a soft glow, as if the light of the room reflected off of them, but there was more to them. The brunette _knew_ what the feeling they gave you was, but he couldn't think of it. All he knew was that they were beautiful in a dangerous way, and so was their owner.

"I..I..was going to change.." stammered Sora, his face reddening once he realized the blond was only wearing a towel around his waist.

The older high schooler didn't say anything in reply, but a small smile did escape onto his face, as if he was amused by the younger student, which caused Sora to blush even more.

"I'll..change over there," the shorter boy averted his eyes away from the blond and went into a bathroom stall as quickly as possible without seeming rude. When he finished, the young man was still there wearing just the towel. Looking at his shoes, Sora rushed by with the feeling that the guy was waiting for him. Shrugging that thought off, he suddenly remembered about last period and how late he was.

"Boy oh boy, were you in trouble!" Wakka smiled happily, grateful that school had ended, "First time in trouble and already you get detention!"

"Sora? In _trouble?_" Selphie gaped, unable to see Sora in detention. "_Our_ Sora?"

"Oh, didn't you know?" chirped Kairi, "Sora is a real trouble maker! He totally stole Riku's red crayon in fourth grade!"

"Aha!" Tidus pointed a finger at Riku, "I told you that I didn't do it!"

"Fine, fine," the oldest member of the group admitted, "I was wrong. But what I want to know is why Mr. Goody-Goody was late to class."

The other four nodded in agreement, taking their eyes off of Riku to look at Sora, wanting an answer. Jeez, Sora thought to himself, can't they mind their own business for once? "I was ambushed by the cheerleaders who all wanted my autograph."

Kairi folded her arms, "Sora! You're starting to sound like Wakka, now tell us what happened!"

"I was trying to figure out a way out of the bet, but then the coach locked me in," he lied. He didn't know why, but he didn't want them to know about the blond boy.

"Eh," said Wakka, "I like the first story better."

"Too bad," Selphie stated, "We have to turn here anyway..bye guys!" And with that, she, Tidus, and Wakka waved bye to the others and turned the corner.

The trio walked in silence, though Kairi occasionaly started talking about something that happened in class. After awhile, Riku finally spoke, "We wouldn't keep secrets from each other, would we?"

Startled, Sora and Kairi said no. Sighing, Riku stopped, looking towards the sky, "I mean, if anything really _big_ happened to any of us, we would tell each other?"

"Of course," Kairi pumped a fist into the air, "I love you guys! I would never keep something really important from you!"

"Yeah," Sora grabbed Kairi's raised arm, "The Three Musketeers, forever and ever!"

The silver haired boy smirked, getting in between his two friends, "Fine then, it's a promise. We're not allowed to keep anything from each other, no matter what!"

"Right!"

"Aye, aye sir!"

The next day, Sora found himself staring at a door marked 'Detention'. He felt uneasy since he wasn't use to getting in trouble and he didn't know what kind of people he would be spending it with. Wakka and Riku got detention all the time, but they were his friends, so they were different.Taking a deep breath, Sora knocked once before quietly opening the door.

There was about six or seven people seated in the room, not counting the ancient, wrinkled man who sat at the front of the room, head slumped over a desk. At first Sora panicked, thinking that he died and was about to go call for help before a hand covered his mouth.

"Tell and die," a harsh voice whispered, the person's grip tightening. Before Sora knew it, everyone started talking at once,

"A new one?"

"Kill him, kill him!"

"Not again, leave me out of this.."

"I think he's a freshmen!"

"Ooh..see if he squeals!"

Even though he had no clue who these people were, the brunette had a feeling that they weren't going to let him leave unharmed. Trying to decide whether or not it would be a good idea to bite the one who held him, Sora looked around the room, hoping atleast one person would help him. No good, he realized desperately, they all either want to hurt me or don't care; I'm doomed.

But, in that moment, the one who held him captive flew across the room. Sora fell to the ground, having no clue what caused that to happen. When he glanced at one of the students who wanted to beat him up, he noticed that he was looking fearfully behind Sora. Holding his breath, the boy turned around only to see the blond guy from the locker room.

"It's you..!" Sora gasped.

"You're welcome," the older student grabbed brunette's hand, helping him up. "You don't really belong here.."

"You noticed?" he grinned, not knowing if it was the appropriate time to be kidding around. To his relief, his savior didn't knock him out.

"My name is Cloud," the blond started towards his seat, "You should stay with me so you won't get your ass kicked."

"Um..I'm Sora," the freshmen replied nervously, the image of Cloud in a towel still fresh in his memory, "Thanks.."

"You don't have to thank me, I wanted to help." His eyes shone brightly, even though the room was slightly dimmed.

"Why?"

Cloud paused, looking over Sora. Smiling, he sat down on the desk's top before answering, "Because I could never forgive myself if a cutie like you got beat up."

By the time detention was over, Sora learned a lot about Cloud Strife. He learned that he was, indeed, a senior and was about to turn nineteen (he was held back a year). Also, he got detention by attacking a soda machine when it stole his money. But what really interested Sora was the fact that Cloud rather listen than talk about himself. Whenever the topic returned to him he spoke in a quiet voice, as if he didn't want anyone to know about his life, but he told Sora anyway. The blond never interupted when the younger student was talking, and asked questions when it was appropriate to ask them. It was as if the two of them were the only people in the room, and that Cloud only wanted to be with him.

"Where do you live?" the older boy asked.

"Um," Sora scratched his head, not sure if it was alright to tell him, "On this island, east coast..right on the beach."

"Ah," Cloud nodded, "I live on this island too, but more inland."

"The city?"

"Yes."

The brunette noticed that girls were gawking at his companion, obviously shocked that anyone that gorgeous can exist. He felt a bit uneasy, even though he was use to when Riku got all the attention. But, this felt different; he didn't want other people to like Cloud. To know about him. "Are you use to this?"

"This?" Cloud looked curiously at Sora, "Oh, you mean the girls? Yeah, but there's usually a few guys too.."

When he said this, he looked down at Sora, with the same amused smile that he had when the younger boy first saw him. Sora quickly looked away, feeling his face burn. "My..friend Riku gets attention, too."

"So you're use to being ignored by others?"

Sora shut his mouth, not really sure whether Cloud was insulting him or asking a question. His eyes glimpsed at the nearby door, thinking if he should make a dash for it. "Erm, well..."

The blond, realizing that his question upsetted his new friend, sighed and patted Sora on the head, "I don't see why they would, I would never ignore you."

And so, the cycle of Sora trying to hide his embarassed face from the older boy, began again.

Once detention was over, Cloud offered to drive Sora home. Upon realizing that no matter what he said he could not refuse the offer, Sora let him place an arm on his shoulder, and steered the younger boy to red Mercedes.

"You have a nice car," Sora mumbled.

"I had a motorcycle," Cloud said, opening the passenger door for the brunette, "But..it was time for a change."

The way he said "change" made Sora wonder, was that anger in his voice? regret? guilt? Before he could decide, Cloud started the engine and left the parking lot.

"So," the blond stole a quick glance at his companion, "You mentioned that one of your friends gets a lot of attention?"

"Oh, yes," he looked down, "Riku. He pretty much gets a new girlfriend or boyfriend each week."

"I see." Silence filled the car. Sora was starting to think that he said something to upset Cloud until he began talking again, "What about this Kairi?"

"She's pretty much what keeps me and Riku from beating the hell out of each other, sometimes," the brunette smiled to himself, letting the memories of his childhood flash before his eys.

"Do you like her?"

This question made Sora choke on air. He turned to face Cloud, only to find that same amused smile that was always on his face whenever he succeeded in making Sora's face the shade of a freshly painted firetruck. "N-no..! Why'd you ask that!"

"Ah, just curious," Cloud spun the wheel slowly, coming into a driveway. "Is this the place?"

"Yeah," he opened the door and slid out of his seat, "Thanks for the ride, Cloud."

The blond merely gave the boy a small smile before driving away. Sora waited until the Mercedes was only a tiny speck before letting out a heavy sigh and he went inside.


	2. Promise

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Square Enix. Yes, I know we're all trying our best to change that, but so far it's still Square Enix and not us.

Author's Note: Second chapter yooooo! Thank you, all my reviewers! You're the reason I was actually able to finish this! w I kept on getting distracted while writing this..out of nowhere I would stop to go read someone else's fic and totally forget about this. T.T;;

_And_ to tell ya the truth, at first I only had a rough idea of what would happen, so instead of doing my work in some classes, I really began to start planning it..and the more details I added, the more complicated the plot got. x.x...I even started to have urges to just ditch a whole bunch of stuff and add in more making out. XD Buuuut, I (sadly) resisted them and finished writing the second chapter. So, here it is! And just remember: It _could_ have been up to your neck with nekkie boys rubbing against each other in bed.

Warnings: Boy-on-boy action!11!...kiddin'. Nothing really, just a lot of fluff...yay fluff!

_Chapter Two_

_Promise_

The sun was glaring down at the small group of teens, all of which were huddled around a palm tree, trying their best to rid themselves of the heat. It wasn't working.

"Oh man," moaned Wakka, "oh man, oh man, oh _man_."

"What is it?" Kairi looked up from her magazine, a scowl visable on her face.

"It's hot."

"We know," Sora whined, resting on his stomach, looking at the magazine with Kairi, "I don't want to think about it!"

"It's kinda hard _not_ to, though," Selphie sighed, fanning herself with her left hand, "I mean, it's fall for crying out loud! Island or not, this heat just isn't right!"

The group considered this for a moment, not wanting to agree with her even though they all knew she was right. The heat was _un_fair.

Wait, Sora thought, could weather be unfair? Did it want to punish them? Why was he even thinking about this?

Tidus, who was quiet all this time, suddenly stood up, mouthing out numbers. They all watched him, curious, until he finally said, "Hey, where's Riku?"

It suddenly hit them that Riku wasn't there.

Kairi sat up and recounted, "Four, five..yeah, where _is_ Riku?"

"Maybe he got captured!"

"By pirates!"

"And got stabbed in the gut!"

"While the woman he was trying to protect sobbed at his side."

The last one was obviously Selphie, but Kairi had to guess who said what with the other three. Realizing that was was wasting time trying to match the comment to it's owner, the girl smacked her forhead in disgust. "We have to find him. There is no way he's going to let us suffer in this heat alone!"

Nodding in agreement, they all stood up and began their "quest" to find Riku.

Who was enjoying a smoothie in an air conditioned restaurant at that very moment.

-----------

"Riku!" Sora called out into the air, already bored of searching. He and the other had split up, deciding to meet on the play island after an hour.

So, there he was, looking for Riku. Alone. In the heat. Wearing a stupid red jump suit that, for some reason, seemed to attract even _more_ heat.

I'm going shopping, the brunette thought to himself angrily.

And then he saw him. Well, he saw _it._ Pale blond hair that shot out in uneven spikes. The person that the hair belonged to turned around, as if he sensed that someone was staring at him.

Cloud.

He gave Sora a soft smile and looked as if he was going to come over but someone got to the brunette first.

"Sora," Riku slapped his friend's back, "where's the flock?"

"Huh?" the younger boy shooked his head, wondering if seeing Cloud was just a dream, "oh! Riku, we've been looking all over for you!"

"Well, here I am," the silver haird boy smirked before adding, "I guess we should find the others, eh?"

"Uh..sure!" he gave a quick glance back to the spot where he had seen the blond, but he was already lost in the crowd.

-----------

The walk to the island's port, in Sora's opinion, was too long and tedious. The sun's rays burned down upon the two friends, turning their skin a bright, pink color (in Sora's case, a darker tan). The brunette watched tourists enviously, knowing that they weren't bothered by the strange heat wave at all. They were winter people. They came to Destiny Islands, welcoming the sun in open arms.

Riku, sensing that his companion was so bored he was starting to get irritiable, decided it was finally time to start a conversation. "Do you think we're a kinda too old to be hanging around the play island?"

His inner rantings interupted, Sora gave him a "I-don't-believe-you-just-said-that" look before responding, "No way! We're kids, kids are suppose to have fun!"

"Actually," Riku patted Sora's dark head, "we're teens. And for some absurd reason, you guys don't seem to understand that."

"Understand that we're teenagers?"

"Yup, and that we have better things to do than play capture the flag all day."

Folding his arms over his chest, Sora's lower lip slightly quivered to show that he did not agree with the older boy.

Riku rolled his eyes, trying his best not to fall for the pout. He's too cute, the aqua-eyed boy thought to himself, too cute and too childish.

And that's what he loved about him.

-----------

Cloud watched the brunette be taken away by some boy with silver hair. How typical.

Taking a twenty out of his wallet, he paid for his meal and decided to walk home; he could ask Yuffie to pick up his car when she was done with her yoga class with Aerith. Yeah, Yuffie..as if she'd pass up the chance to crash his Mercedes into the ocean.

Shaking his head, the blond turned a corner, barely avoiding running into two girls who looked familiar..did they go to his school? They seemed to be looking for someone named Riku..

And then it hit him: Sora mentioned that his friend's name was Riku. Cloud was about to call out to the girls, but held back once he realized that there might be hundreds of Rikus on the islands. And if they were looking for Sora's, what business does he have with them? It wasn't like he and Sora were _friends_ or anything. No, Cloud's friends were a fourty-two year old man, a guy who only glared when spoken to, an overlyhyper teenager, and, well, Aerith.

Of course, there were others, but they were only a part of the past.

Past. Past. _Past._

But Sora wasn't. He was the _now_.

And he seemed like a decent addition to Cloud's deranged life.

-----------

After an afternoon filled with Marco Polo and shark attack, Sora, Kairi, and Riku sat in a circle (well, more like a rounded triangle) in the sandy shore of the play island. Their friends left to eat dinner, knowing that it was a sacred ritual of the three to spend the last seconds of the sunset together. It was kind of stupid, but they respected it anyway.

Ri-ku," Sora purred, pounding his fist against the bottom of the shoe, emptying it of sand, "I found you so I should get the biggest one!"

The oldest of the trio, Riku, snorted, clutching a bag, "Just wait a minute, you idiot."

"What's the surprise anyway, Ri-ku?" Kairi giggled, mimicking Sora, "you told us you brought something!"

He nodded, holding out the bag. His hand paused over the opening, wanting to add suspense since he _knew_ that his two friends were dying to find out what was in the bag. With a smirk, he pulled out a paopu fruit, "Tada!"

Kairi gasped, "A paopu? Riku! What are you thinking?"

"Earlier," he began, "we promised each other that we would never lie. After listening to Selphie ramble on about this thing today, I figured that if we made a pact, we might as well seal the deal."

"With a fruit that repersents eternal love?"

Riku shot Sora a dirty look before continuing, "Well, it doesn't repersent love right now. It repersents our friendship and our promise of _never_ lying to each other or keeping secrets-"

"Unless it's icky girl stuff that you guys wouldn't want to hear about," Kairi smiled.

"Erm, yeah.." the silver haired boy cleared his throat, "unless it's girl stuff. But anything other than that, we tell each other."

"But what if it's girl stuff that we need to know about?" Sora placed his shoe next to him, suddenly interested in the conversation, "like, if Kairi gets a boyfriend or something, we gotta know about that!"

"Well, I suppo-"

"Oh come _on,_" the girl crossed her arms, "you will be the first to know if I get one!"

"Right, so-"

Scratching his cheek, Sora looked away, "You know Selphie is going to find out like not even five minutes after you agree to go out."

"Yeah, she wi-"

"Oh, ho!" she stood up, "Are you jealous that you might not be the first to know?"

"I don't thi-"

"_Me?_ Jealous?" he feigned a shocked look, "Never! I only have your best interests at heart, Kai."

"Will you pl-"

"I know," she chirped brightly, hugging the brunette with one hand, "just teasing you!"

"Can I talk now?" Riku muttered bitterly, glaring at the two.

"Sure," Sora blinked, "I don't know what was stopping you."

Groaning, Riku held up the paopu so they can all see it, trying to get them back on topic. Satisfied that the two were paying attention again, he said, "So, I decided that we should eat this together, since pinky swears are for kids."

Kairi and Sora nodded to each other, both accepting the idea. Riku couldn't help but feel proud of himself, it wasn't every day when all of them agreed on something without having to depend on a race to decide what to do. Breaking the fruit into thirds, he handed each of them a piece before putting his in the air as a toast.

"To us,"

"Best friends,"

"Forever and ever, or until Wakka gets an 'A'."

-----------

That night, Sora couldn't sleep.

He kept on having the same dream over and over again, and it bothered him since he could never remember what the dream was about but he knew they were important. Somehow.

And the excitement of the day still hadn't worn off yet.

He also saw Cloud. Well, Sora _thought_ he saw Cloud. How many people have spikey blond hair, here? A lot, actually, but his hair was different. It was _Cloud's._ And Cloud was different. The fact that he wasn't like everyone else made Sora want to know more about him. Maybe, he could even introduce him to Riku and Kairi.

Maybe.

It really depended on whether Cloud even wanted to hang out with Sora again; the only reason they even talked was because the blond didn't have anyone else to hang out with. That's what Sora thought, anyway. Cloud probably had tons of friends and girlfriends and was captain of some sports team and dated college girls and ditched school.

Typical, typical Riku-ish stuff.

Turning over on his bed, Sora sighed. It was the first time he wanted to go to school.

Besides the day when Kairi came.


	3. Laundry

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, of course, you already knew that.

Author's Note: I pretty much changed what the pairings are gonna be, so don't depend on the list I gave you on the first chapter. Of course, the Sora/Cloud one is going to stay the same..the rest is a secret (even though one pairing is pretty much _obvious,_ eh?).

And I'd like to thank all of my reviewers! I love you! -hug- Especially the ones who keep on reviewing, I get so motivated after reading the reviews. Also, I was going to submit this awhile ago, but I got...grounded. -coughs- So I'm pretty much sneaking on right now. o.o;;..Actually, I was going to submit this a few days ago but I decided to totally redo the beginning of the chapter. So..yeah..I think it's better now.

Also, if you're sort of confused on whether this is a Sora/Riku fic or a Cloud/Sora one..it's Cloud/Sora. You'll understand the Sora/Riku-ness once I get farther along with the story. Right now, there isn't that much Cloud/Sora going on..but I assure you, there will. Just think of the first few chapters as intro chapters, oky? The main plot will come shortly, I promise.

Warnings: Nothing in this one, really..

_Chapter Three_

_Laundry_

The day went by slowly, draining the energy out of Sora as it wore on. He had spent almost the whole day avoiding Tidus; he _did_ lose the bet, and he wasn't in the mood to handle old underwear at the moment. It really did just occur to him how much dirty laundry a male teen could produce in just a week.

Great, he thought bitterly, a year of smelly socks. I will never force my laundry upon my mom again.

"Sora," the brunette turned to see Riku, "Tidus is looking for you."

"I know," Sora answered. "Which is why I'm in class."

The silver-haired boy chuckled. "How smart. Oh, and Kai has a dentist appointment today and I promised to take her. Want to come with us?"

"Eh," the younger boy scratched his head, "sure..I guess. As long as I don't have to see the dentist myself."

Once the words left his mouth, the bell rang. Sensing that Tidus was glaring at him as he entered the room, Sora slouched down, ready to kill who ever suggested the bet in the first place.

He was about to doze off when something hit him on his ear. A note. Opening it, Sora saw Riku's slanted scrawl. With a smile, he wrote his response and they soon had a whole conversation via notes.

_Riku: you seem depressed._

_Sora: no. just bored._

_Riku: are you sure?_

_Sora: yup._

_Riku: remember: the promise._

_Sora: i know, really. just plotting a way to dodge Tidus._

_Riku: fine, fine. your face was just scrunched up._

_Sora: i was thinking._

_Riku: you must have a damn hard time thinking, then._

The brunette shot his friend a death glare before packing up his things: class only had four minutes left. "You shouldn't insult your best friend, y'know," Sora stuck his tongue out.

Riku rolled his eyes before leaving the room. At the door, he paused and turned to look at Sora. "Pfft. Oh year? Who do you have besides us?" And with that, he left the classroom, leaving Sora to wonder.

Who did he have besides them?

-----------

A cool breeze brushed by the blond, causing him to shiver; Cloud felt as if the drastic change in weather overnight only happened to agitate him. Whether it did or not, he was indeed, pissed off. Very, _very_ pissed off.

"Stupid island," he muttered. "I thought they were suppose to be warm and sunny." Cloud opened the driver door and sat in the seat. He was tired. He was cold. And he needed gas. Starting the Mercedes, Cloud headed towards the nearest gas station.

He did love the island, though. It slowly became his home, even though Cloud was sure he would hate it. Pratically everyone was nice, hurricanes usually missed it, and best of all was the solitude you could find on the island. Well, except during the tourist season, then the only place you can be alone is at your own house.

Braking at a stop light, the blond gazed out of the window and did a double take.

Walking inbetween two people was Sora. Cloud smiled to himself, seeing that the brunette seemed happier since the last time he saw the boy. Not sure if he should offer a ride or not, Cloud merely watched the trio and nearly had a heart attack when one of them (the girl..who looked oddly familiar..) pointed at the Mercedes.

"..isn't moving.." He couldn't hear exactly what the girl said, but he had a feeling he knew when a dozen cars were honking at him. The light turned green and he was staring at Sora like an obsessed.._stalker_ or something. Ew.

Giving the small group one last look, Cloud gave the people behind him the finger and drove off.

-----------

The moment they left their classes, Kairi began a conversation with herself about the pros and cons of getting braces. Every once in awhile, Sora and Riku would give one another a look that said, "I-hope-they-glue-her-mouth-shut". Unfortunely for them, Kairi saw.

"Stop that!" she gave the boys a look that even rivaled Sora's famous pout. "This is serious! What if my teeth are so bad that I need braces for life? I mean, they're not _so_ bad, but I really don't think it'll be safe having braces on removeable teeth when I'm eighty or ninety.."

Riku sighed. Sora giggled. The brunette was about to answer but something caught his attention. Selphie and Tidus. _Without Wakka._ He was stunned; those three were just like Kairi, Riku, and himself: Always together.

The other two must have spotted them too, for Kairi pointed them out. "Hey, isn't that Selph and Tidus? Where's Wakka?"

The silver-haired boy shugged. "Who knows? Maybe they ditched him or something?"

The girl gasped. "Them? Ditch Wakka? _Never!_ Unless.."

Riku and Kairi shared a smile before quickening their pace. Sora felt as if he was being left out of the loop again and he hurried up to catch up with them. "Unless..?"

Kairi giggled. "Oh. Never mind, Sora. It's not important."

"But--"

"You'll know when your time comes, young one," Riku ruffled Sora's hair, winking.

Pouting, Sora followed his two friends. "Fine..but it would be a lot easier if you would just tell me so I wouldn't hafta wait so long.."

The rest of the walk continued in silence (if you ignore Sora's constant whining to make Kairi and Riku tell him). Sora wrapped his arms around his two friend, humming a tune. He couldn't really remember where he heard the song from, but he knew it. It wasn't too long ago..

Aha! he snapped his fingers. It was playing on the radio when Cloud dropped me off! He didn't give it too much attention at first, he spent most of the ride hiding his embarrassed face from the older boy, but now that he thought about it the song seemed really nice. Calm and peaceful, but at certain points it would speed up, causing the brunette's heart to hammer in his chest. It was...Cloud. His theme song, Sora mused, I need to find out what it's called.."

"Hey!" Kairi tapped his shoulder, "That car isn't moving, I wonder why?"

The two boys glanced at the car she was pointing to, a red Mercedes. They began to wonder out loud if the driver was drunk or just stupid, panicking at the possibilty that he might even be _dead._

"I don't think so.." the girl said softly. "I have a weird feeling that who ever is in that car is watching us.."

And then it hit him. Sure, Sora thought, there's probably more than a hundred Mercedes of that color here, but I'm sure it's him. "That's Clo--" he stopped himself before he could finish saying the name. He couldn't. Cloud was _his_ secret, and he wouldn't tell anyone..not even some prom--.

Shit. The promise.

Riku, right on cue, spun around to face Sora, the expression on his face completely serious. "'Clo'? Do you know that car?"

The brunette averted his eyes away from his friend, positive that if he lied Riku would just see right through it. "No..why would I?"

The two stared at each other, ready to fight if the had to. Kairi, sensing the tension rising, decided that it was the perfect moment to interupt. "Stop it, you guys! This is a really stupid thing to fight over! Besides, the car's already gone.."

And to Sora's relief, and disappointment, it was.

-----------

Twenty minutes and two apologies later, Riku found himself in a brightly lit waiting room, skimming through magazines from the 1970s. On his right, Sora sat fidgeting, obvious scared of being at a dentist office.

"Relax," Riku said, not looking up from an article about hair spray, "you're not the one with the appointment."

"Still," the brunette gave the exit a longing glance, "these places freak me out. And it's so ugly I think I'm going to go blind!"

He had a point, Riku sighed. The walls were painted a sickly foam green with bright red polka dots that looked as if they were an after thought. The chairs and table were a deep purple, clashing with the rest of the room. It burned looking at the surroundings.

Sora continued, "I thought they wanted people to come here, not run away covering their eyes."

The silver-haired boy snorted. "The dentist and the eye doctor are plotting together. The crappy paint job is all apart of their master plan."

The younger boy was quiet for a moment, then he whispered, "I knew it."

Riku smiled; it was moments like this that he loved, when he and Sora were alone. Sure, he loved Kairi to death, but when she wasn't in one of her usual long ass rants about the enviornment or negative effects video games had on children..that girl really did have a big mouth. Yet, when it was just him and Sora, Riku felt the excitement of the earlier years resurfacing, when sea shells were gold and crabs were vicious dragons...it wasn't _that_ long ago..was it?

What really troubled Riku, though, was the fact that Sora was hiding something from him. Sora _never_ hid anything from him. Why now? What was so important that he couldn't tell his best friend? It had to do with who ever owned that car, Riku knew that much. Did he know anyone who owned a Mercedes?..his dad, but it's silver and not that banged up. Anyone else? No. Riku knew everyone Sora did..friends, family, neighbors..hell, Riku _was_ his neighbor. Who was so important that the brunette had to hide his very existance? _Who?_

Sora chosed that second to tease his friend. "Ri-ku," he grinned, "your face is all scrunched up."

"I'm thinking," was the reply.

"You must have a damn hard time thinking, then."

Raising an eyebrow, Riku bopped Sora on the head. "You were just waiting to say that, weren't you? Hoping that the right moment would come for you to steal my line."

Laughing mischievously, Sora beamed at his friend, eyes sparkling in enjoyment. He folded his hands and rested his chin on top of them, intently watching his friend. "Maybe..maybe not. But you were just asking for me to say it, you looked constipated."

"I did not," Riku looked away, shocked. He never noticed how.._blue_ Sora's eyes were. "I never look 'constipated'."

The brunette giggled. "You did just then! And that pretty little nurse saw; I think she's under the impression that you made the look at her..she's probably crying her eyes out in the back right now..shame on you, Riku! _Shame on you!"_

The older boy threw a magazine at his friend, earning a nasty look from an old lady who was pestering the nurse behind the counter about getting braces for her artificial teeth. Note to self, Riku thought, tell Kai about cranky woman and her teeth.

The two spent the next few minutes chatting about the important things in life (Blitzball, school, whether or not Kairi's skirt was way too revealing for someone her age..). Riku was about to reopen the topic of the Mercedes again when Kairi showed up, smiling brightly.

"Cavity free!" she exclaimed. "Dr. Higgins--that's my dentist, by the way--said my teeth are perfect! No need for braces in this mouth!"

"Great!" Sora gave the girl a hug. "Lets go celebrate at Tony's! Riku's buying."

"I am?" Riku sighed, another allowance spent on Sora stuffing his face. "Fine. But don't get us kicked out this time..and Kai, no flirting with the waiters!"

"You mean little ol' me?" Kairi said sweetly. "Why, I would never do that!"

Grunting, Riku held open the door for the two, and gave the old woman the nastiest look he could make before leaving.

-----------

"This is _sick,_" the brunette stabbed a pair of Wakka's sock with a pencil. "No human should be able to produce these."

Wakka threw his gym shorts at Sora, laughing. "You haven't even seen the rest of it, man!"

Groaning, Sora reminded himself to never bet against Riku again..especially if the loser had to do any phsyical labor. Sighing, he picked up Wakka's laundry bag and brought it to the washing room at the back of the locker room.

And there was Cloud.

A towel was draped over his shoulders in a graceful manner that Sora was sure only Cloud could perfect. Beads of sweat dripped from his hair onto the floor, creating a tiny puddle at his feet, which just happened to be bare. To top it all off, he was shirtless.

Sora felt the blood rush to his head. Okay, he thought, I finally get to see Cloud and I'm carrying underwear. Wonderful. Great. Absolutely perfect.

"This is exactly how I imagined our next meeting," Cloud tilted his head. "Except for the smell, of course."

Sora simpered. "Me too..we sure do find each other in..weird places, don't we?" Without a moment's hesitation, he began to explain why he was there, hoping that Cloud wouldn't smack him to shut him up.

He didn't. Instead, the blond murmured, "Aha, the bet. Do you mind if I stay here with you? Or would you rather be alone with those socks?"

"N-no!" Sora waved his arms frantically in the air, "stay! Please! They'd probably eat me or something!"

Cloud blinked. "Eat you?"

"Well..yeah," the brunette nodded, "didn't you hear? Some guy got mauled by stockings. It was all over the news and everything!"

"Wow. I never trusted those things."

"Me neither, you can just tell they're evil."

Both of them burst out laughing; Cloud, a soft chuckle, and Sora, a loud and joyous laugh that made him seem like the happiest person in the world.

"So.." Cloud tapped his fingers against the wall, "I saw you and your friends walking yesturday."

"That _was_ you!" Sora sighed with relief. "Riku and Kairi thought you were a stalker or something."

"A stalker?" The blond frowned. "They thought I was..following you..?"

Sora saw the look on his face and instantly regretted saying that. "Oh, no! Don't worry, they just watch too many horror flicks! I knew you weren't come wacko!"

Cloud smiled. "Thanks. But, you know, I can be some creep who only wants to take you to some dark alley and rape you."

The brunette thought about this, but shooked his head. "No, you wouldn't."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I can tell, Cloud. You're a good person..you have a good heart."

"Sora.." he didn't know what to say."...Thanks."

The younger boy blinked. "For what?"

"For being you."


	4. Vanilla

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix and Disney do...-twitchtwitch-

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, folks..but here it is! Chapter four! Huzzah! XD Yes, yes..took me longer than usual to post this one..but hey, atleast it's finally here, right? _Right?_ But it was totally not my fault! I swear! I've been babysi-- erm, hanging out with relatives from Italy..who I had to take to Miami..where we got lost (they don't know we were lost, though). I am ready to stab the six-year old with a fork if it will get him to _shut up_. Please, someone..anyone...have pity on me. ;;

Anywho..some people may be happy to see a certain ninja (though, she isn't a ninja here since it is AU..) in this chapter! YAY! That means Leon will be introduced soon..cause I'm sure a lot of people were wondering about him, right? Right. Of course they were, he's Leon.

Also, I decided to continue the RikuxSora oneshot..so it's not a oneshot anymore..o.o;; I just suddenly had an idea of what I could do with it earlier..so be happy all you RikuxSora fans! For I am a kind and generous fanfic writer! XD Ahaha..I love you all. 3

Now read! -laughs evily-

Warning: Curse words and suggested stuff.

_Chapter Four_

_Vanilla_

Sora felt his face flush, the words Cloud said were buzzing around his head like an angry swarm of feminists at the Playboy mansion. It took him a moment to notice that he was severely stretching the elastic of a pair of boxers. "W-what did you say..?"

Cloud's face was expressionless, but it was clear that he was enjoying making Sora freak out. "You're really naive, I could say just about anything and you'd be embarassed."

The brunette pouted, letting his eyes narrow into slits, "Oh yeah? If I'm so 'naive', how'd I get a detention?"

"You were late to class; you told me that day," the blond said matter-of-factly.

"Oh. I did? I don't remember.." the younger boy wrinkled his nose in thought, trying to remember the conversation they had.

"I think you told me during the first few minutes when we introduced ourselves.."

"Really?" The brunette couldn't help but wonder if that was true; was he really _that_ friendly? Hm, maybe Riku did have a right to worry about who he hung out with..it seemed like he would tell a random person walking down the street his address...

As if he could read Sora's mind, Cloud interupted. "You're the type of person who's really friendly, you know. The kind who would help anyone who's in trouble."

"You think so?"

"Am I wrong?"

Sora was quiet for a moment before shrugging. "I guess you're right. I _do_ do that a lot."

The blond nodded. "I could tell, I guess that's why I helped you."

"I thought you said you helped me because you 'wouldn't be able to forgive yourself if a cutie like me got beat up'?"

"Ah," Cloud smiled. "I did say that, didn't I? I guess I was caught up in the moment.."

Sora's face fell. "You don't think I'm a cutie?"

Sighing, Cloud gave the brunette a disbelieving look. "Are you sure you're not the annoying one with your friends?"

The boy laughed, hoping to God that his new friend wasn't being serious..it was hard to tell with Cloud sometimes. "You wouldn't be saying that if you met Wakka."

Pointing at the pair of boxers Sora was trying to..uh, unstretch, the blond snorted. "After seeing his underwear, I already feel as if I know him."

Grinning, the brunette gave up and threw the undergarment into the washing machine and turned it on. Relaxing at the soft hum of the machine, Sora sat on top of it. "Oh! That reminds me, do you remember that song that was playing in your car?"

Cloud shooked his head. "Song?"

"You know, _the_ song," the brunette hummed the tune of the song, slightly annoyed that Cloud didn't remember...and he would be even more annoyed if he didn't recgonize the tune, despite how off-key his humming was.

"The Oscar Myer song?"

Sora groaned; he knew he wasn't _that_ off-key. "No-- even though I do like that song-- the one that was like, 'All the lonely people'..blah blah!"

"The Beatles?"

"Ew, where! Are they on me?"

It was Cloud's turn to groan. "Don't tell me you don't know who the Beatles are?"

Sora coughed, "Fine, I won't tell you."

"Well," the blond began. "They're a band. The best band, actually..well, most of them are dead..but they're still the best."

"Dead?"

"Shot..and other things."

"Oh. Poor bugs."

"B-bugs? They're human beings, Sora!"

"Really? The Beatles is a stupid name, then.."

And then Cloud laughed, in a..You-are-the-stupidest-person-ever-to-live-yet-you-are-so-cute kind of way. Yeah, simply adorable. "Are your friends this..erm, you know..?"

"Oh. _Oh._ Nope!" Sora shooked his head. "Just me, for I. Am. Batman!"

Again, Cloud laughed. The brunette pouted, not really seeing what was so funny. He really _was_ Batman, he had the costume and everything..jeez, no one ever believed him..

_"Batman?"_

Okay, time to change the subject. "What about your friends? What are they like?" Sora asked.

Cloud cleared his throat. "Oh, them..um..they're.."

"They're _what?"_

The two turned towards the doorway, surprised to hear a feminine voice in the boys' locker room. A dark-haired girl was leaning against the doorway, watching Sora and Cloud with amusement in her eyes, as if they were the two most interesting people in the world.

She grinned at the two, before waving at the blond. "Hey, Cloud! I knew you would be in here..just not with anyone. At first I thought I was interupting something, but then I realized it was _you_ so of course I wasn't--"

"What do you want, Yuffie?" Cloud muttered.

"To meet your friend, duh!" she answered, unfazed that she was just rudely interupted. Yuffie winked at Sora. "I'm Yuffie, the one and only! Friend of Cloud, president of the Lets Irk Cloud and Leon fanclub!"

"Uh..hi.." Sora gave Cloud a quick scared look. "Nice to meet you! I'm Sora."

Yuffie grabbed Sora's left hand and shooked it happily, causing, in Sora's opinion, blood vessels to burst. "Now I know why Cloud's been so hard to talk to lately-- well, harder than usual-- because he has a little boyfriend--"

"Yuffie."

"-- I can see it now! Me and Aerith can be the bride's maids, and some of your girlfriends, too..I've seen you walking around with two girls..and it can be at Cid's shop! Oh, how great! Then a big rave afterwards! Drinks! Hot, gay men having se--"

"_Yuffie."_

"-- all over the place! Um..what kind of cake..? I know! Van--"

"I don't really like vanilla," Sora giggled at the disbelieving look Cloud gave him. "Chocolate?"

Yuffie nodded. "Yes, chocolate, what was I thinking? _Vanilla._ Pfft! The Devil's food!"

_"**Yuffie."**_

"Yes, Cloud?"

"What are you doing in the boys' locker room?"

-----

Riku was suspicious, oh yes he was. Sora should have been finished hours ago with the laundry..how dirty can clothes get?

But, then again, it was Wakka's..

"Do you think he got raped or something?" Kairi licked the tiny Dairy Queen spoon, trying to get as much ice cream as possible off of it.

"It could happen. with all the freaks running around these days.."

"Name one of these 'freaks'."

"Well," Riku scratched his chin, deep in thought. "I know! That guy in the Mercedes! You said yourself that he was watching us!"

"I said that I had a feeling, a feeling that _could_ have been wrong, ya know."

"But maybe the feeling was right..and now Sora's tied up in the backseat of the mentioned Mercedes..tears running down his cheeks screaming for his two best friends..who are currently enjoying a sundae together at Dairy Queen."

"Riku," Kairi said sweetly. "Lay off the Lifetime marathons."

The silver-haired boy muttered threats under his breath, impatiently wondering why girls never saw the seriousness of any situation. It was _Sora_, for crying out loud! Why must she be so..girl-ish at a time like this! He could be hurt, or scared, or..or..

Walking towards them right now.

"There you are!" Kairi smiled. "Riku was having a seizure just now."

Riku glared. "Was not, stop filling his head with lies, woman!"

"Aww," Sora purred. "Poor Ri-_ku._ If it makes you feel better, I'm still a virgin."

"Ha!" the girl stuck her tongue out at the older boy. "Told you!"

Laughing, Sora squeezed in between his friends, grabbing a banana from the large sundae before answering. "How are you two?"

"You mean, where have _you_ been?"

The brunette wrinkled his nose. "Washing clothes, you knew that, silly!"

Riku sighed. "It shouldn't have taken you that long, Sora."

"Fine, fine," Sora threw his arms up in defeat. "I was abducted by aliens. _Then _I washed the clothes. Happy?"

"Not really.." But Riku decided not to press on with the matter; he couldn't if he wanted to figure out what was wrong. If Sora hadn't cracked down under the pressure of keeping something from his two friends, it was serious..whatever "it" was.

"Well," the boys turned to face Kairi. "Now that that's settled, Selphie said something pretty interesting to me today..."

Oh God, here it comes.

"...Wakka wasn't with him because he was at 'blitzball practice'. Now, as we all know, the day we some her and Tidus never has practice scheduled on it. Some religious stuff, I think..Anyway, what else--"

"You guys still haven't told me what you were talking about," Sora whined.

Kairi, though, ignored him. "--Tidus said that Wakka told them to go ahead, and that they decided to wait for him to catch up. Pretty weird, if you ask me--"

"Seriously, you guys!" Sora gave his friends a pleading look. "I wanna know!"

"--They're hiding something, and I want to know what."

Just like Sora's hiding something, Riku thought to himself. And _I_ want to know what..and I always get what I want.

"You know, when I get married, I want chocolate cake."

"_What?"_

"Isn't vanilla just gross?"

------

The blond inwardly groaned; first time he got to talk to Sora in weeks..and **She** had to come and ruin it. Cloud gave the girl a quick glance, wondering how did she always find him during the worst possible moments. Like an hour ago with Sora. Or when he was taking a shower. The second, though, seemed to happen a lot..

"He was nice."

"Huh?"

Yuffie rolled her eyes, enjoying that she just made Cloud feel like an idiot. "Sora, you found a nice one."

He averted his eyes, wishing that the girl would just shut up for once in her damn life. "Stop talking about him like I bought him online or something."

She laughed, her raven colored hair bouncing around her ears joyously, making Cloud smile despite his current frustration towards her. "Online? Like eBay? Oh! soraBay! Get your own previously owned and molested Sora! Fun, fun!"

"You think of the weirdest things."

"Someone has to around here."

The pair were seated in Cloud's car, randomly driving around the city. The blond sighed with satisfaction as the cool breeze hit him, calming him down a little. Just a little, though..Yuffie was still talking.

"It makes me happy seeing you make new friends."

Cloud rose an eyebrow. "Happy?"

"Yeah," Yuffie paused, lost for words (for once). "It's usually just us..you know, the little group. I have other friends, and I'm pretty sure the others do-- Leon might be an exception, who knows with him-- but you..you're just, so.."

"Not friendly?"

"Exactly! Wait, no!" she pounded her fist on the dashboard. "You're pretty friendly once you open up..just that you don't do that a lot. I mean, you were the one who asked me to become you guys' friend..but after that you got, I don't know..shy. It's kinda hard talking to you when you just grunt and..be all..Leon-ish."

"Shy?"

"Yeah! I think you are, anyway," Yuffie nodded. "Some people say you're an ass, but I don't think so. You're..wait, I'm getting off topic. How long have you've known Sora?"

Cloud shrugged. "Not sure, that was about the second time we had a conversation, though. Why?"

"There! You looked so relaxed around him..and it was only your second conversation! The only time I ever saw you that relax is with Aerith..or..or..Tif--"

"And, this is where you get off." Cloud quickly leaned over Yuffie, opened the door, and shoved her out of the car, before driving off into the sunset.

He knew, of course, that he just declared war on none other than _the_ Yuffie.

------

Sora yawned, pulling his pajama top over his head. He could hear his mom watching her soaps across the hall, smiling at the thought of her crying over the death of Samantha's fiance..only to find out it was really his long-lost-twin-brother-who-was-really-his-sister-who-looked-like-a-man..or something. The boy spun around on his swivel chair..thing, stopping in front of the computer, where he was currently in a chatroom.

_born2blitz: sora man! where r u? i need help with math hw, ya!_

_my kai kai: Wakka! do your own homework, jeez_

_born2blitz: u wouldnt b sayin that if u had my grades_

_PaupuLurv3: haha..yea..his grades are really bad_

_born2blitz: and no one asked you!_

_Riku iz hawt lol: i'll help you, Wakka_

_born2blitz: thanks riku, man!_

_Riku iz hawt lol: no problem_

_PaopuLurv3: where's Tidus?_

_my kai kai: not here?_

_sora likes pie: guys, i'll be going..tired_

_Riku iz hawt lol: haha..tell me what happens to Samantha_

_sora ate pie has left the chatroom._

Smiling to himself, he tip toed to his mom's room, finding her nestled under the comforter, eyes glued to the T.V screen. "Mom?"

"Uh huh?"

Sora climbed into the bed, snuggling close to his mom. Hey, he was a momma's boy, big deal? "How's Samantha doing?"

Haruka gave her son a tearful look. "Awful! As it turned out, her fiance, Jack, was really his long-long-twin-brother-who-was-really-his-sister-who-looked-like-a-man! Who would have thought it?"

Another point for me, Sora mused. "Poor Samantha, almost as bad as her last fiance who turned out to be a monkey.."

"Such a charming monkey, he was," his mom winked. "I would have married him, too bad his spaceship blew up.."

The brunette frowned. "Then I would have a monkey for a dad, no thanks!"

"It's either the monkey or the long-lost-twin," she smirked.

"I'll take the monkey."

"Thought you would."

The two watched the show in silence-- well, besides all the sobs and rustling of tissues being passed back and forth-- until it ended. Sora watched his mom turn of the television before deciding that it was alright to tell her. "Mom, I met someone."

"Is he or she cute?"

_"Mom!"_

Haruka giggled. "Go on, go on."

"Well," Sora said. "I don't know why, but I don't want anyone to know about him, besides me--"

"You told me, sweetie."

"I'm a momma's boy, of course I told you." Sora said impatiently. "Anyway, Riku, Kairi, and I made a promise; we're not suppose to keep secrets from each other or anything! And I don't want to break it..so, what should I do?"

His mother was quiet for so long Sora began to wonder if she'd fallen asleep, and he jumped atleast two feet when she spoke. "Well, what do you think is more important? The promise or the boy?"

Kairi and Riku or Cloud.

And to his surprise, he couldn't choose.


	5. Chocoboman

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, stop reminding me.

Author's Note: Chapter five is up! -cheers- I wanted to get this one up soon, because I want to start working on chapter two of Before There Were Three (I really don't like writing two fics at the same time.). Orignally, Leon was suppose to be in this chapter, but I decided to put him in the next one instead. Mainly because I'm mean. So, ha ha!

Annnnnd, I got a beta reader! -points at David- I met him on LJ, and he volunteered to be it! Yay! I am forever in his debt..yeah. I really am thankful, since I'm starting to get lazy with this (even though it doesn't seem like it, I am.) and I needed someone to remind me about writing. Actually, whenever I see his screen name on AIM I instantly think, "Oh, shit. Gotta work on the fic." So, once again, YAY! And he did an awesome job on correcting all my grammar and spelling mistakes, so now it seems like I actually paid attention in Language Arts.

Whenever I picture Chocoboman, I see Cloud with a chocobo costume on with a cape and his underwear on outside. Hehe..-snickers-

Warnings: Lots of assuming, which we all know makes an ass out of me, and an ass out of you.

_Chapter Five_

_Chocoboman_

Kairi watched in horror as Sora gulped down the sausages and eggs. It was a pretty breakfast, lovingly prepared by the girl's mother and placed on glass plates decorated with ducklings and matching cups.

And Sora ate everything in two minutes flat.

Such a shame.

Sighing, Kairi began to take the dishes to the sink, wondering why her mom even tried to make fancy meals whenever the boy came over, especially after the incident where he almost swallowed a fork.

That... er, wasn't pretty.

Smiling to herself at the memory of Riku trying to get his hand down the brunette's throat in an attempt to retrieve the utensil, Kairi placed the dishes into the sink to wash later. When she returned to the dining table, though, the girl found Sora sprawled out on the floor.

"My tummy huuuurts," he whined, holding his stomach.

"That's what happens when you eat at 70 mph," Kairi answered.

He stuck out his lower lip. "Riku wouldn't tease me at a time like this," he grumbled.

She prodded his side with her foot. "Um, yes, he would. Actually, what I said was pretty nice compared to his usual comments."

Sora, unable to accept that Kairi was right, stuck out his tongue at her, "Well, you have a huge zit on your forehead!"

Slapping her hand to her forehead, Kairi glared at her friend. "Ha ha, Sora. You're starting to play dirty. Stop hanging out with Wakka; he's rubbing off on you."

"Yeah, yeah."

Pleased with his victory, the brunette sat up, totally forgetting about his earlier complaints of his stomach. It was early Saturday morning and he had spent the night over at Kairi's house; they were waiting for Riku to come over. Rubbing his belly, Sora looked hungrily at the jar of cookies on the kitchen counter.

"I thought your tummy huuuurt?" teased Kairi.

"Cookies cure everything."

"Says the doctor," the girl rolled her eyes. "Any other miracle remedies?"

"Pie."

"Of course."

Kairi gave her watch a quick glance and bit her lip. Where was Riku? He was supposed to be here thirty minutes ago. Thirty-one.

Shaking her head, she turned to face Sora, only to find him staring at her with an odd expression on his face. "What?"

He turned a bright shade of red. "Nothing, Kai."

"Oh, come on," she batted her eyelashes. "You can tell me, Sora!"

"Well..."

"Please?"

"I had a dream," he paused. "Usually I can't remember my dreams, but this one was so... so..."

Kairi blinked. "So what?"

"I don't know," Sora said as he shrugged. "But we were planning on leaving the island—you, Riku, and me—but then a storm came. It was... scary and mean."

"Scary and _mean?"_

"Yes, very."

"I see."

The brunnete cleared his throat. "Anywho, the scary, mean storm came and I ran to check on the raft. And there were these _things_ that... that... were evil—and pretty cute—but evil!"

"Evil and _cute?"_

"Yes, very."

"I see."

Sora gave the girl a flat look. "Are you making fun of me?"

"No, what makes you say that?" she said as she flashed him an innocent smile.

He ignored her. "I started looking for you two, and I found Riku! But... he said some pretty weird things."

Kairi scratched her cheek. "Like what?"

"Something about..." Sora said softly, making Kairi have to lean forward to hear. "Not being afraid of the darkness, and that you were going to come with us. He held out his hand but I couldn't reach him in time. Then, he disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

"Lost, in the darkness."

"Lost," she shuddered. "In the darkness?"

"Yeah, I guess," the boy shook his head. "And I got sucked into it, too. I wasn't lost, though. But, I got this Keyblade... thing."

"Keyblade... thing?"

"So," he said. "I went to the secret place, looking for you. You were inside."

This caught Kairi's attention. "I was?"

"You said my name and the door opened. Some force blew you towards me, but when I tried catching you, you just went through me."

Oh. "I did?"

He nodded. "Then... I fought this big, black thing with the Keyblade! I kept fighting and fighting, and I won! But... but some evil vortex of doom destroyed everything! The island, _everything."_

"Then what happened?"

"I woke up."

Kairi let out a low whistle. She would have never even guessed how mysterious Sora's dreams could be; he usually only dreamt about man-eating carrots or wearing tights to school. She honestly didn't know how something like that would affect the boy; losing his friends and home so suddenly in such an odd and twisted manner would probably break his heart.

"Kairi?"

She looked up. "Yes?"

"Are you going to eat those cookies?"

-----

He dashed down the stairs, unable to believe that he, Riku, overslept. _Sora_ overslept; Riku woke up early and refreshed. What was so different today?

Oh, yeah. Staying up all night trying to figure out what Sora was hiding.

Fun.

The silver-haired boy scolded himself, muttering curses under his breath. He checked the living room clock to see what time it was, only to find out that he was an hour and twelve minutes late. An hour and thirteen.

But what really pissed the boy off was the fact that he could not figure out Sora's secret. Riku doubted it was school related or that it was a family matter; he was practically family, anyway. And of course it couldn't be **anything** like love, right?

Right?

Oh, God no.

The thought made Riku shudder. Sora? In love? Wait, no. Sora in love with someone _else._ But who? Wakka! _That _thought made him gag—no offense to you, Wakka, You're a good guy and all, but not very... er, sexy—he could not lose Sora! He wouldn't. Not to some airheaded, sex craved weirdo guy in a Mercedes!

A Mercedes with a fuckin' chocobo bumper sticker.

What was he, three?

No, Riku would not let "Chocoboman" get away with such a severe level of blasphemy. Oh, no sir.

This. Was. War.

-----

"Chocoboman" found himself being pulled by an energetic Yuffie, scared out of his wit as to where she was taking him. Damn you, extra house key, _damn you._

Oh, how he despised shoe shopping.

"Cloud," Yuffie shouted excitedly. "I heard that this place has the best shoes ever!"

"Yay."

Either she ignored the sarcasm or didn't notice it. "There's these really nice boots that you're going to buy for me and—"

"Wait," he managed to loosen her grip. "I'm buying you boots?"

"Yes. You promised me."

"When?"

"Just now. You said you were going to buy them for me."

"No, I didn't. I asked you a question."

"And I answered. Yes, you are."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"No?"

"Yes."

"I win!" Yuffie grinned. "They cost $120. Will that be cash or credit?"

"Hold on," the blond twitched. "I said yes to your no when you asked me about my no."

"Huh?"

He sighed. "Cash."

"Yay!"

Women, Cloud thought bitterly. It took them so long to get rights because they would've conquered the world with their manipulative ways otherwise.

A few hours and stores later, the pair were seated at a circular table, drinking tea at a cute little café. Cloud would occasionally peer over his cup at Yuffie, a look of disbelief plastered all over his face.

The girl couldn't take it anymore. "What?"

"You're not talking."

"I'm thinking."

He gasped.

With a swift kick under the table, Yuffie shut him up. "Did Sora meet the others yet? I mean, I was blabbing on and on about them the other day, but now I'm not sure if he knew who I was talking about."

"He didn't. He's only met you, so far."

Sadly.

"Invite him over your place! You-know-who never leaves during the day since he's a vampire and Aerith would come if we ask! How 'bout it?"

"No."

"Boo!"

Cloud couldn't help but regret not simply enjoying the quiet Yuffie. He drank the last drops of his tea, going over the girl's words in his head. Should he invite Sora over? The two only had two decent conversations with one another, so wouldn't that seem a bit stalker-ish?

He'd probably call the police or something.

"Cloudykins?"

He frowned. "That's a really stupid name, you know."

"Yeah, sure," Yuffie smiled. "Are you sure you don't want to invite him? If you _really_ liked him, you would."

"Um..."

Standing up, Yuffie gathered up all the items that Cloud bought for her, grinning. "Great! I'll ask him, you just show up and look pretty. Okay, bye!"

"W-wait! Yu--"

--ffie. He sighed, wondering what he was going to do with that girl. Cloud watched as she ran off, pushing people out of her way for no reason at all. He sighed again.

Was he really pretty?

-----

The sun shone down brightly on Selphie as she jogged over to the play island's docks, hoping that they didn't leave her. Again. It really wasn't her fault that she lived the farthest away, yet they always left her—and Sora—behind if they didn't show up exactly on time. She had an excuse, anyway; Sora just overslept all the time.

So, it was to her surprise and joy to find Kairi, Tidus, and Sora sitting side by side on the dock, facing towards the water. She gave them a quick wave before she realized that Riku wasn't there.

_Riku._

He was **always** on time. It was like some weird obsession of his to never be late. Ever. Wakka, Selphie knew, was at Blitzball, so his absence didn't worry her. But Riku?

Freeeaky.

"Hey guys," the brunette said cheerfully to her friends. "What's up?"

Tidus mumbled a reply while Sora pointed to the sky. Cute, very cute.

"Just waiting for you," Kairi answered. "As usual. But strangely enough, Riku isn't here yet. Any idea what happened to him?"

"None," Selphie shook her head. "Wasn't he suppose to sleep over at your place?"

Sora yawned. "He never came," he said dully, his voice dripping with boredom. "I'm tired of waiting, Kaaai."

"We've waited hours for him," Kairi explained. "But we figured that if we waited any longer we'd be late. Anyway, since we're meeting here, I thought that he could've told us why he didn't show."

Selphie nodded. Strange, Riku always called when he couldn't come; this sounded like a _mystery_...

A mystery that shall be solved by Detective Selphie and her trusty assistant, Tidus!

"Come, my dear Tidus!" She pointed an index finger towards the sky. "We have a mystery on our hands, and it's up to us to solve it!"

The blond boy gave her a confused look. "Wait, wha?"

But before he began to understand the situation, the girl grabbed his arm and ran off, talking excitedly about it being the biggest case of their young lives, and how it might even be aired on NBC.

"What was that about?" Sora asked, looking at Kairi.

She shrugged. "I don't even want to know.

-----

The two friends acknowledged the fact that Riku wasn't going to come and that Tidus and Selphie were off on some sort of whacked-out adventure. Sighing, they boarded their boats and headed back to the main island to find Riku—who had locked himself in his bedroom after he had jumped to the conclusion that Sora was being molested by a psychotic serial killer, whose true identity Riku was trying to discern—and scold him for standing them up.

Once the two were back on the island, they split up. Sora waved goodbye to the girl and began his search of his missing friend. He really didn't understand why Riku did not show up; what was so important that he couldn't even tell them that he couldn't make it?

Maybe some wacko kidnapped him and Riku was being forced to do sexual acts to please the guy's sick needs!

No, that was too absurd. Only someone really paranoid would think of something like **that**.

Pushing the thought away, Sora continued his search, but to no avail. Finally giving up, he seated himself on a bench next to a black-haired girl, who seemed vaguely familiar...

"Well, well," she said. "What a small world it is, after all. Here I was, looking everywhere for you, and you just come out of nowhere and sit next to me!"

The brunette smiled. "Hey, Yuffie. Nice seeing you again."

"Of course it is," Yuffie winked. "I'm _me_. But I know someone you would like to see even mooore."

Sora blushed. "W-who..?" he stammered.

This made her grin even more. "Cloudykins wants to know if you can come over his place tomorrow night. You can meet the gang, and do... erm, other things, if you want to..."

"Other... things?"

The raven-haired girl chuckled. "You really are innocent for a high school student. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were still in elementary school."

"I'm not!" Sora glared at her, his trademark pout was in full blast.

"There," Yuffie said seriously. "That pout! It's something usually only a three year old could perfect, but here you are, making people give you candy whenever they see it! You're just too cute."

He was about to protest even more, but Yuffie grabbed his hand and started to write something on his palm. She patted his head and gave him an amused smiled. "That's the address and apartment number. See you tomorrow, Sora-poo!"

Sora watched her as she walked away, wondering how anyone could have so much energy.

Selphie has some competition, he thought to himself. And I need to find something to wear...

For he was totally not wearing a red jumpsuit.


	6. Friends

Disclaimer: Batman na na na na na na! I don't own Kingdom Hearts na na na na na na!

Author's Note: FINALLY! Hehe, sorry for the wait. I got... lazy towards the end. And I have discovered that I absolutely **suck** at clothing descriptions. Seriously, I was stuck for weeks on Sora's outfit, and it ended up not being that detailed. 'Cause I suck. :O

KH2 is almost here! Hurrah! Expect a lot more work from me once it comes out, 'cause my muses shall be going crazy! XD AND I SHALL FINALLY WRITE SORA/ROXAS GOODNESS/caps abuse Hehe... I ignore all my het couples. -needs to work on some het fics-

Warning: Curse words and sexual refrences. Be afraid, be very afraid.

_Chapter Six_

_Friends_

Sora stared at the pitiful mess that he called his closet. Clothes were thrown hastily on the ground, almost covering every inch of the pretty yet neglected blue carpet. The brunette was shocked to find a family of _squirrels_ happily eating a turkey sandwich. He didn't think his closet was _that_ dirty...

Or maybe he did, but he was just in denial about it.

Nah.

Sighing, he sat on the edge of his bed, muttering obscenities under his breath. There was no way he was going to be able to go; he would call the number Yuffie scribbled on his palm and cancel, saying that he was deeply sorry... and that his cat died. Yeah, his cat. Sure, he was allergic to cats, but they didn't know that.

Satisfied with his decision, the boy leaned over to grab his bedroom phone, only to stop, hearing footsteps. Sora instantly recognized the soft shuffling one pair made, and the loud thudding of the other. No, he silently pleaded. Please... not them.

"Sora," a female voice greeted him. "Guess who?"

"Um," the boy gave the pile of rejected clothes a quick glance. "Mom?" The footsteps paused outside of the door, and he heard giggling from the other side. Nope, not his mom.

"What are you doing in there?" a more masculine voice interrupted the girl's giggle fit. "You better not be masturbating or anything—" the brunette heard an 'ew' and smiled "—you don't want to scar poor, little Kai."

Knowing that they wouldn't wait any longer, Sora walked over to the door and slowly opened it, not surprised to see the faces of Riku and Kairi grinning at him. "Hey guys," he said sheepishly as they treaded into his room. "What are you doing here?"

"Your mom called." Kairi hesitantly nudged a pair of pants with her shoe. "She said a tornado struck your room, but we didn't understand... I think I get what she meant, now, though."

Sora felt his eyes narrow; so it was his mom's fault they came. Oh, she was evil. "Really? I see no tornado," he laughed nervously as an avalanche of clothing fell from the closet, and landed on an unsuspecting Kairi. Ouch.

Riku rolled his eyes. "_Why_ does your room look like this, anyway?" he asked, eyes filled with suspicion.

"But my room always looks like this, Ri-_ku."_

"No. Usually you can see the floor."

The brunette coughed, averting his eyes from his friend's accusing face. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that Riku knew more than he was letting on. Was it really that obvious? "I'm... going to visit grandma! Yeah, and I can't pick what to wear..."

Kairi's head reemerged from under the hoard of clothes. "Grandma May? Doesn't she live all the way in Traverse?"

"Um, yeah... but she's on the Bingo World Tour right now, and they're at the islands for the finals—" Sora winced when a boot toppled onto the girl's head "—and she wanted me to come and root for her." He nodded vigorously, hoping that it would convince them.

"Well then," Riku gave Kairi a sympathetic look, though his attention was still on Sora. "We'll come, too. After Kai gets an ice pack..."

The dazed girl mumbled something in agreement, but it was obvious she had no idea what they were talking about anymore.

"Actually," the brunette peered at the window, wondering if he would survive a two story drop if he tried to escape through it. "She only wanted me to come; you know, a grandma-grandson kind of thing... without other people."

The older boy's eye twitched, but a wide smile was still plastered on his face. "Okay then, I understand. Tidus said something about wanting to see a movie, anyway. I guess we can hang out with him and Selph today, instead."

"Great."

"Right, great."

"Yeah."

"Uh huh."

"Um," Kairi slowly crawled away from the closet, inching towards Sora. "You said something about needing help with an outfit...?"

Sora, realizing that there was no way he would be able to cancel on Yuffie now, sighed in defeat as Kairi went to inspect his closet.

-----

Cloud found himself pacing around the leather loveseat, thinking of excuses if Sora complained about anything while he was there. _'Oh, the couch? Ugly, isn't it? But Leon had to have it...' _or _'Oh, Leon? He's mute... did I say mute? I meant to say that he's an ass.' _He groaned in frustration, already regretting that he agreed to do this... actually, he didn't; Yuffie forced him to.

_"You invited him over!"_

_"You said I could, Cloud."_

_"... When?"_

_"Oh, look! There's Cid. HI CID!"_

Speak of the devil, the blonde thought bitterly as the said girl bounced happily into the room. Yuffie's grin widened once she spotted the sour look on Cloud's face. "I've locked Leon in the broom closet so that he wouldn't leave," she announced proudly. "Now all we have to do is wait for Sora."

The blonde shook his head; Leon was going to be maaaaad. "Anything else you care to share?"

"Yeah," her smile faltered. "Aerith can't come, she said that 'something came up at work.' She sells _flowers _for crying out loud! Did someone overwater a tulip?"

Sighing, Cloud sat down on the loveseat, staring at the clutter of magazines that rested on the coffee table. He and Yuffie attempted to clean the apartment, but forsook the effort long before reaching the living room. Luckily, Leon went on one of his cleaning sprees earlier that week, so it wasn't as disarrayed as Yuffie claimed it to be.

"But," Yuffie winked at her friend, "this is going to be so much fun! Sora is such a cutie, don'tcha think? You snagged a good one."

Cloud's face reddened. "He is _not_ my boyfriend, we're just... just friends," he retorted lamely.

The girl snickered, curling a strand of her hair around her index finger; Cloud already knew what was going through Yuffie's mind: _Of course he's only your friend, that's why you had an asthma attack when you found out Sora was coming over, even though you don't have asthma._

Yawning, the blonde leaned more into the back of the loveseat, sneaking peaks at his watch every few seconds. He didn't understand why Yuffie would even think that the brunette was more than a friend to him... it was unthinkable—okay, maybe it wasn't _unthinkable_, but... it wasn't true, anyway. They only had two decent conversations, for crying out loud! And... Sora's coming to his apartment.

Cloud was debating whether banging his head against the table would give him brain damage or not, when a blatant, ear-splitting crash filled the room, causing him to smack his head on the table anyways. Dazed, Cloud rubbed his head slowly while idly wondering how stars showed up in his living room. After a minute or two, he finally regained his composure. "What," he muttered, "was _that?"_

Yuffie looked bewildered, but quickly shook it off. "I think Mr. Grumpy-Butt found the baseball bat in there," she sighed. "Maybe I should have locked him in a bigger room instead..."

He rolled his eyes. "You think?"

"Well, you put on too much cologne," Yuffie snapped. "I thought you said he wasn't your boyfriend, so what's with the cologne? Are you trying to seduce him with—" she gave the air a quick sniff "—what is that? It smells like lilac, do lilacs arouse Sora-poo?"

Ignoring the urge to shove his shoe into the girl's mouth, Cloud glanced at his watch again, now paranoid that it was probably broken. _Was it almost two, already? Oh God, he'll be here any minute now... wait, what if he isn't coming? Maybe he changed his mind and decided to hang out with Riku or Kairi or that guy with the underwear—Wakka, or some weird name like that..._

Or maybe he was overreacting; Sora was just a friend, coming over for a visit.

So why did he feel so nervous?

The sound of knocking interrupted Cloud's thoughts, though it made him ten times more nervous. He was immobilized on the loveseat, horrorstruck at the idea of opening the door... what if it was a police officer, here to burden Cloud with the news that Sora was hit by a truck coming here? Or that Sora was kidnapped on the way? Or that he _was_ Sora, and that he went through some... twisted mutation and became middle-aged!

_Dammit! Just open the door, Strife. Pull it together. And. Open. The. Door._

Awkwardly, he stood up and gave Yuffie another death glare before dragging his feet towards the door. Taking a deep breath, Cloud turned the doorknob slowly.

Sora was staring at his shoes, humming softly; he looked peaceful, standing at the doorway as if he came over everyday. The look of surprise on the brunette's face when the door opened made Cloud chuckled despite himself... Sora was too cute. Cloud took in what Sora was wearing, wondering if one of his friends—Kairi maybe?—helped him choose his outfit. Loose fitting jeans hugged his hips nicely; it was as if they were made for the boy. A jean jacket was worn over a plain white shirt, something that most people couldn't pull off without looking tacky, but it worked with Sora. The crown necklace that he always seemed to be wearing was around his neck, as well as the silver chain that was nestled on his hips. Shaking away the indecent thoughts that were crawling into his mind, Cloud waved at his guest.

"Hey," the blonde smiled. "I was wondering where you were."

Sora blushed. "Yeah, well... I woke up late and..."

"Don't worry about it," Cloud ruffled the boy's hair playfully. "I'm just glad you decided to come."

A cat call interrupted the two, causing Sora to jump two feet into the air in surprise; Cloud narrowed his eyes. _Yuffie._

The said girl sauntered towards them, smirking. Cloud shot her a warning look, but she ignored him and pounced on Sora. "I missed you, Sora-poo! Welcome, our casa is your casa," Yuffie cooed.

_You mean _my_ casa,_ Cloud thought acidly. He ran his hand through his blonde spikes, inwardly kicking himself for giving Yuffie that key... long, long ago. "Watch it, woman. I think Sora would like to come inside first; you can strangle him later."

The girl snickered, leading a bewildered Sora into the apartment. Cloud watched Sora as he was shown around by Yuffie. Sora's reactions were priceless; never before had Cloud ever seen someone squeal over a chocolate maker like he did.

In the middle of Yuffie's explanation on why it was essential to have an iguana care kit even though none of them actually _had_ an iguana, Sora tugged onto the girl's sleeve. "The closet is talking," he mumbled, pointing towards the closet's door.

"Oh!" Yuffie smacked herself in the forehead, "Leon, I forgot about him," she grinned at Cloud, her eyes sparkling with joy, "you can finish the tour while I handle Squall." With a wink, she hurried to see a disgruntled Leon.

The brunette immediately turned to face the older boy. "You have a chocolate maker," he said, looking awestruck.

Cloud shrugged, "Whenever _they _buy something that won't fit in _their_ house, _they_ dump it here," he explained. "Why?"

"_Chocolate maker..."_

Sighing, Cloud patted his friend on the shoulder, wondering how much Sora ate on a daily basis. Shuddering at the thought, he indicated towards the couch with his left hand. "Do you want to sit? It may take awhile for Yuffie to come back."

Sora blinked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. "Huh? Why? She said something about 'Squall'... who's that?"

"A friend of mine. He's kinda... er, have you ever seen _Snow White_?" Cloud asked.

"Yup," the brunette nodded enthusiastically. "Why?"

"Lets just say that Grumpy is the G-rated version of him."

Sora let out a loud laugh, clutching his stomach. Smiling, he ruffled Cloud's hair the same way the older boy did to him earlier. "So, you like Disney?"

The blonde bit his lip, hoping that Sora wouldn't notice how long it was taking Cloud to respond; was Sora a Disney fan? Or, was he one of the people who loathed anything that had to do with Disney? But the look of honest curiosity on Sora's face forced away all of the older student's negative thoughts. Smiling sheepishly, he answered.

"I grew up watching the movies. The new stuff is crap, though; I'm a fan of the classics."

To Cloud's relief, Sora seemed delighted by this. "Me too," the brunette said excitedly. "My favorite characters are Donald and Goofy, they're the greatest!"

"I hate Hercules," Cloud wrinkled his nose. "He seemed too... eh, I would rather slit my throat than be saved by a man in a _skirt."_

Rolling his eyes, Sora prodded Cloud with his index finger. "Either way you'll end up dead," he teased.

"If his skirt was a little longer, I wouldn't really care," Cloud continued, shrugging." But _no_, it had to be _short._ Throughout the whole movie I was scared that there was going to be a panty shot."

Snickering, both boys talked about Disney, describing their favorite moments and greatly elaborating on why a certain villain was either bad-ass or just stupid. They agreed that Hades should have been eaten by that-big-dog-or-something and that Maleficent desperately needed friends. Or plastic surgery. Or both.

Cloud felt himself relaxing next to Sora, his nervousness almost dissipating—_almost_ being the key word. Every once in awhile, Sora's arm would lightly brush against Cloud's leg, turning both their faces a deep shade of pink. Or, Cloud would lean a little _too_ close to the brunette, and he would involuntary take in the scent of Sora's hair before realizing what he was doing. They would laugh it off, not really sure why they were having so many awkward moments—well, Cloud wasn't sure, anyway. He didn't know what Sora was thinking... if he liked the accidental touches or minded having his hair sniffed...

Er, not like Cloud cared, anyway. After all, they were _just friends._ Right?

Right.

It was that moment when Yuffie decided to return, dragging an obviously ticked off man behind her. His long, thick brown hair looked as if he just went through a brawl, and after being locked in a closet for more than an hour, he probably had. Yuffie, however, managed to come out unscathed, probably because of Leon's reluctance at hitting girls.

"Sora! I hope I didn't interrupt _anything,_" she gave him a sly smile. "This sexy, leather-clad fellow is Squall, or as he likes to be called, Leon," she pointed to the scowling brunette. "Don't mind him, he's just a bit angry that he got his ass whipped by a girl."

"Whatever," Leon muttered.

Sora happily waved at Leon. "Hi, I'm Sora, nice to meet you... Squall, right?"

The older brunette, however, didn't seem to care if he was rude or not. "It's Leon. And... nice to meet you, too... kid."

"Um... it's 'Sora.'"

"Whatever."

Cloud, knowing that the conversation wasn't probably going to end well, decided to cut in. "Well, now that you know each other... um, who wants a sandwich?"

Sora's arm shot into the air; he was practically bouncing off his seat. "Me! Mememeeee! As long as it doesn't have ketchup, I'm happy," he mused.

Yuffie squealed at his reaction and glomped him. "Eeeek! You're just _too_ cute, Sora-poo! Cloud, you just _have_ to keep him!"

Cloud shook his head, wondering if Sora would survive his first visit to Cloud's house. _Probably not,_ he thought and sighed. This was going to be a loooong day.

-----

Riku tapped his knuckles on the table, trying to catch Kairi's attention. He knew that if he kept at it long enough, she would either give in or hurl something heavy and breakable at his head. Hopefully, it would be the former. Every few taps the girl would twitch slightly, but that was the only clue that meant that they were getting to her. Riku grinned, watching her eyebrows rise slightly. _Any minute now..._

"What," the girl grunted through clenched teeth, "do you want?"

Riku ceased his tapping, having got what he wanted: her attention. "Well, I was thinking..."

She frowned. "About what?"

"Oh, you know... school, the weather, where Sora is really going..."

Sighing, Kairi gave the silver-haired boy a stern look before replying. "Sora told us that he was going to his grandma's bingo tournament, remember?"

"Yes, and I know that you don't believe him," Riku said. "I mean, _come on._ Grandma May hates bingo with a passion. We all know that. Sora must be hiding something pretty big to think that we would fall for _that..."_

"Or," Kairi shrugged, "maybe it's none of our business? When Sora's ready, he'll tell us. I know he will."

"Or," Riku countered, "maybe he's _not_ planning on telling us. I know that you're curious, too, Kai."

Pushing a lock of hair out of her eyes, the girl rose her hand to signal the waiter. The pair were sitting in a rather crowded restaurant, in one of the few booths that weren't filled with crying kids or gossiping teens. The Oblivion was one of the busiest places in town, mostly because of the three rather attractive co-owners, Rikku, Yuna, and Paine. And thanks to all the noise surrounding them, it was a fantastic place to talk about secrets, especially ones that they didn't know.

The waiter, a muscular man who looked rather out of place in the restaurant, appeared at the table wearing a forced smile. Completely ignoring Riku, he turned to face Kairi. "Hello, my name is Steiner, and I will be serving the two of you this afternoon. Would any of you like to hear today's special?"

"No," Riku said curtly. "We would like to have what we always get when we come here, Steiner."

The waiter gave Riku a cold glare before walking away, leaving the two alone. Smirking, the silver-haired boy looked at Kairi, only to find her staring at Steiner's retreating back.

"Um, Kai...?" Riku leaned over the table and patted Kairi's shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Is he still mad at you for rejecting Garnet?"

Shrugging, he averted his eyes away from the girl. "Not my fault I'm not into girls, and she doesn't even care anymore. And I thought that he would be glad that I said no, with how overprotective he is... wait. You're changing the subject."

Kairi feigned a gasp. "I would _never_ do that, Ri-_ku_," she exclaimed, deliberately pronouncing his name the way Sora did. "Especially when the discussion was about you being paranoid of Sora having a few secrets!"

"I am **not** paranoid," he said defensively. "I'm just... worried."

Blinking, Kairi frowned. "About what exactly? And don't mention your theory about the guy in the Mercedes, please."

"You mean Chocoboman?" Riku covered his mouth, knowing that he just screwed up. He glanced at Kairi, hoping that she wouldn't overreact over the fact that he gave the guy an alias.

She gaped at him, her mouth hanging open. "You _named_ him? Oh, no. You really _are_ serious about this, aren't you?"

Riku laughed nervously. "Uh... yeah, I can explain... well, Choco—er, that guy was too suspicious. And well, there was a chocobo bumper sticker on his car and—"

"So you named him _Chocoboman_?"

"It was better than calling him a stalker, alright?" the silver-haired boy muttered.

"Maybe you should—I don't know—talk to Sora about this," said Kairi, "and tell him how you feel."

Blushing, Riku jumped out of his seat. "What! I can't do that! That's... that's being nosy—" Kairi rolled her eyes when he said this "—and what do you mean 'how you feel'? We're _just_ friends!"

The auburn-haired girl sighed. "It's a bit obvious, isn't it? It's not like you try to hide your death glares whenever someone hug him," she stated.

Giving Kairi a skeptical look, Riku folded his arms across his chest, leaning over the table. "I have no feelings like that towards Sora. How could I fall for that goof?"

And she surprised Riku by giving him the saddest smile he had ever seen. "It's not that hard, Riku. Falling is a simple thing to do, whether you want to or not," she whispered, staring at a salt shaker on the table.

His curiousity piqued, he returned to his seat. _What did she mean? Kairi was in _love_? Holy shit! With who! Wait... was it really that obvious? Did Sora know? How long did Kai know? Did the guy know that she liked him? _ARGH!

"If we want to catch Tidus and the others in time for that movie," Kairi grinned, smoothly changing the subject, "we better get going. I'm sure Steiner won't mind if we leave."

Knowing that the waiter _would_ mind, Riku nodded in agreement and stoff. With a chuckle, he grabbed the girl's hand and pulled her to her feet, ready to spend the day with one of his best friends and... Tidus.

He might even have fun.

-----

"No, Yuffie. I do _not_ want you to braid my hair," Leon said, clearly annoyed at the girl who was impatiently tugging at his hair.

"But I already did Sora's," Yuffie whined, imitating the boy's pout.

"And we all know how _that_ turned out," Leon said flatly, gazing at the mentioned brunette, whose hair now formed a single spike that was sticking up towards the ceiling, thanks to Yuffie and hair gel.

Sora watched the two bicker, hoping that his hair would go back to normal soon; how would he explain to the others why he decided to change his hairstyle at a bingo tournament?

"—it would look cute, Squall, it's not like you're _straight_ or anything—"

But despite that fact that he could probably stab someone with his hair, Sora was having fun. Yuffie always managed to keep the group entertained—or in Leon's case, agitated—and made sure that Sora was enjoying himself. And even though Leon at first seemed like a heartless bastard, Sora learned that he wasn't heartless at all, just a bastard. He could honestly see them getting along fine with his friends.

"—don't you ever stop talking? I'm getting a migraine listening to—"

Oh, yeah. How long was he going to keep this a secret? Eventually, the pressure would get to him, and he'd tell them. But... why didn't he want to tell them in the first place? Wouldn't Cloud someday want to meet Sora's friends? Sora couldn't lie to his friends forever, he would have to introduce them. And then... Cloud wouldn't be his secret anymore.

"—you are so grouchy, geez! Do I sense sexual frustration? _Ow! _You little—"

Cloud. Shyly, Sora glanced at the blonde seated next to him, who was watching the pair with a bored expression; he probably went through these arguments on a daily basis. Every so often his position would shift slightly, occasionally exposing his midriff or other appeasing parts of his body. Yum.

"Ack!" the brunette squeaked, covering his mouth with his hands. Did he just think 'yum' referring to Cloud? Oh. Wow. Wowwowwow. Yes, Cloud _was_ sexy. Yes, Sora _was_ attracted to him. But, that was just hormones. Sora thought Riku was hot, but he only liked him as a friend. They were only friends.

He looked up to find his companions staring at him with strange looks on their faces—even Leon. Blushing, Sora gave them an awkward grin. "I... saw a spider... he... hehe."

"Uh-huh," Cloud patted Sora's head, looking doubtful. "Right. A spider."

Yuffie slung one arm around the brunette and winked. "Sora is scared of spiders? Haha, well don't worry! Cloud will protect you, ya know," she laughed.

Blushing, Sora shook his head. "H-hey! We're just—"

"—friends. We're friends, right Sora?"

The look Cloud gave him sent chills down Sora's spine; he couldn't describe it. The blonde's eyes were so full of feeling and... and some foreign emotion that Sora didn't understand. Gulping, he smiled meekly. "Yeah, just friends."

And suddenly being "just friends" wasn't enough.

Not anymore.

* * *

Mwhaha! I shall now reply to the reviews of people who weren't signed in! 'Cause I feel bad for replying to everyone else, but not them. :O Sora and Cloud shall help! 

**Sora**: Huh?

**Cloud**: ... -glares-

Okay! Here we go!

_I like the story! please write more! Me like!_

**Sora**: Yay! Don't worry, she's writing lots!

**Cloud**: Sure, she's being an indolent ass about it, but she's still writing.

... Thanks, Cloud.

_'squeals' like some Yaoi fan girl  
Love it 'says it in singsong voice  
Please oh please update please um...thats all_

:DYAOI FANGIRLS UNITE!

**Cloud and Sora**: -edges away-

_Oh love the CloudXSora fic, I wonder if Sora's Freinds well meet Cloud or Riku getting Jealous over his new Freindship...but yeah SoraXCloud Fic are good to see. they do make an new couple to read so good luck with this one._

Yeah, they do! Hopefully people will start to realize how great they are together.

**Cloud**: Why are you talking about us like we're not even here...?

And yes, evantually Sora's friends will meet Cloud... just not all at once. As in, Riku is last. Mwhaha!

**Sora**: Poor Riku...

**Riku**: What the hell? What have I ever done to you, woman?

Oh, crap... he escaped. Uh... buh bye for now! READ AND REVIEW! -flees!-

**Riku**: Bitch! -chases-

**Cloud and Sora**: ...


	7. Investigate

Author's Note: Uhhhh hi. I'm sure that you guys thought that you'd never see the next chapter of this, and I kinda was not expecting to write it! But a few days ago, I was reading the reviews and just felt... really bad about leaving it unfinished. So here's the next chapter! I'm going to try to finish it in two-three more chapters. Sadly, I lost most of my notes for this fic-- but I still remember all the main events I was planning, so it's all good. And sorry for any mistakes! This hasn't been through a beta. So yes, sorry for the wait and please enjoy it.

--

The three spent the rest of the evening tidying up Cloud's apartment and discussing the day's events. At least, Cloud and Leon cleaned while Yuffie wouldn't stop talking.

"That was fun," the girl chirped, stretched out on a couch. "Next time we're going to his house."

Cloud rolled his eyes. "Maybe he doesn't want us to go to his house?"

Although he did actually like the idea of visiting Sora's house. His mom sounded like a really easy going person. Tidus and Wakka seemed alright, although Selphie might turn out to be another Yuffie. Now that was something he would rather avoid. But what really interested him was Riku and Kairi-- the brunette wouldn't stop talking about them. Cloud felt as if he already knew them. Well, kind of.

From what he knew, Kairi was like the mom. She took care of the boys, scolded them for all the idiotic things they attempted, and was basically the middle ground between the two. From the way Sora talked about her Cloud was beginning to wonder if the brunette was in love with her or something, but when asked Sora denied it.

Then there was Riku. Cloud didn't really have an impression of him yet. Sora went on and on about how great Riku was, and how cool, and how he was the best person in existence. But he never got into too much detail, and he kept repeating how he would beat him one day.

"I wonder what kind of food his mom cooks," Yuffie wondered out loud, her feet swinging over the couch's edge.

"You can worry about that when he invites us over," Cloud said.

"That's if he invites you," Leon emerged from the kitchen, three cups of cocoa in hand. He thrust two of them into Cloud's arms and took a seat at the counter, away from Yuffie.

The blonde handed Yuffie her drink. "Well, he doesn't have to invite me. I mean, I didn't even ask him to come over, right?"

"You should be thanking me," she frowned. "The two of you would still be doing laundry together if I didn't do anything."

Cloud opened his mouth to respond but promptly shut it. She did have a point, if she hadn't interfered then he and Sora would still be making small talk over Oscar Meyer. And he did have a nice time, despite the fact that he needed a new door for his closet. The real question was, though, whether or not Sora enjoyed himself. He did say that he wanted to come again at some point, but he could have been just being polite.

"He talks about his friends a lot."

Cloud and Yuffie both shared the same startled expression; neither of them thought that Leon was actually paying attention to what Sora said. "Yeah, what about it?"

The brunette shrugged. "He never mentioned any of us meeting them. He talked a lot about him meeting your friends though."

"Oh." Cloud didn't even notice that. Everything about Sora seemed to revolve around his friends, but not once did he mention what they thought of Cloud. That really wasn't any of his business, though. It wasn't like Sora had to tell his friends about him. They just met recently, after all. They weren't engaged or anything.

"Why the sudden interest, Squall?" Yuffie grinned. "I didn't think that you liked Sora."

"I didn't like being locked up in order to meet Sora."

Shaking his head, he took a sip of the chocolate drink. He had a feeling of what it was like to be Kairi right about now.

--

Sora was practically floating as he went across the room. He smiled excitedly as he fluffed pillows and straightened out his desk. He was giving the impression that he would burst into song at any moment, and that the birds and rabbits outside would join in.

But unlike certain overly suspicious silver-haired teens, Kairi wanted to give Sora as much privacy as he needed. She did have a few doubts, but they weren't worth stalking her friend for. She would never violate his--

Kairi gasped. "Are you... Did you just fold your socks?"

"I guess," he looked puzzled, holding up the articles in question. "Why?"

Or maybe it was more serious than she had initially thought. Riku's conspiracy theories were starting to look a tiny bit more plausible. The mysterious Chocoboman could actually be an alien from a far off world, kidnapping innocent girls in an attempt to conquer the universe. But then where would Sora fit in? He did look cute in a wig...

Her pocket began vibrating, snapping her out of her thoughts. Digging her fingers into her jeans, Kairi managed to pull the offending item out and one quick look at the screen confirmed her suspicions. She politely excused herself and exited the room.

"Are you at his house?" Riku's voice rang out of the phone.

"Yup," Kairi leaned against a door that sat down the hall from Sora's. "He's folding his socks."

Silence met her ears. She could practically picture him struggling to comprehend the news. "Sora was-- but what the-- why?"

"Maybe it's an alien," she mused, suddenly finding the doorknob next to her interesting.

He ignored that. "Did you ask him what he did?"

The doorknob looked like it was polished recently, although there were smudges already present on it. There were even a few scratches that the trip were guilty of when they were younger. The more she studied it, the less Kairi wanted to reply. But she knew that an impatient Riku equaled an unhappy Riku, and she couldn't have that.

"I want him to tell me when he's ready," she finally said. "If I force it out of him then it won't mean much. I don't mind waiting."

"That's the difference between you and me then."

She fell silent before letting out a small laugh. "You're missing the big question though."

"And what's that?" Riku sighed.

"If this means that Sora will change his mind about not helping me clean out my garage."

She wasn't surprised to hear a click and then the dial tone. Re-pocketing her phone, Kairi trudged back towards Sora's room, muttering about how boys were so weird and that she should just go lesbian to be done with them all.

The doorknob wouldn't have hung up on her.

--

Kairi's over friendliness when she returned made Sora a bit wary. She was rambling about doors and the pros of same sex relationships, and for a moment he thought that that she figured everything out until she began to rant about aliens.

Perhaps cable TV really was bad for you.

After calming down, she sat next to him on the bed. Sora pushed some laundry aside to give them more room. The quietness became awkward, and he was starting to wonder what exactly did Riku call her about.

"How was your date?" she finally asked.

"It wasn't a date! Can't I watch old people play bingo in peace?" Sora let his back hit the mattress, avoiding his friend's gaze. "She lost, by the way. It was very tragic."

"I'll send her my condolences."

He hated lying. He once got in trouble with Selphie since he couldn't keep a secret she told him from Riku. She wouldn't speak to Sora for a month. But, for some reason, he didn't want to share Cloud. At least, not yet. It just didn't seem like the right time to tell them.

But when was the right time? What if he waited until after Kairi had her seventh child, and Riku had already become supreme overlord of everything? Would it be alright to suddenly say, hey I met this guy in high school and I think that I like him? He might not even know Cloud then. For all he knew, Cloud could get happily married to Yuffie and Leon could be the priest.

"I want to be the best man," Sora said to himself.

"Is someone getting married?" the redhead nudged him, her eyes curious.

"You can't go. You'll be too busy giving birth to your eighth kid."

She smacked him, looking indignant. Her features softened after a moment, and she patted Sora's stomach playfully. "Are you free next Saturday?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, why?"

"It's my turn to go on a date with you."

--

The set of equations that sat before him made Riku feel queasy. He was actually pretty good at math, but no matter how many times he punched the digits into his calculator or scrawled down answers, he couldn't get the questions right. If he had been giving it his full attention, this might of been a problem. But his mind kept wandering to the conversation he had with Kairi a few nights ago on the phone, and instead of writing down the symbol for pi he drew fancy red convertibles.

It was extremely irritating.

A few seats to th left of him was Sora, who seemed to be having more trouble than he was. He nervously chewed on his eraser, glancing at the clock every few seconds. It was obvious that he used the right side of his brain more than his left, but it looked like he was having more trouble than usual. Maybe he was worrying about something else too? He could be trying to get out of helping Kairi over the weekend-- a task that Riku happily got out of the first chance he got. But that wasn't something Sora would normally fret about. Unless.

Riku looked at his drawing of the car. He had added feathers and a beak to the front, something that he didn't quite remember doing. What if his friend was planning on going on another bingo trip during the weekend? He had to thank Kairi for ruining the meeting then, even though she'd probably scold him for being so paranoid.

But he had every right to be suspicious, didn't he? Sora never kept things from them, so why would he start doing it now, especially after they all promised not to? And especially after what happened when they tried to leave the islands on the raft. Clenching his teeth, he pushed the thought away. He didn't need to think about that now.

"What are you doing?" Selphie poked his back. "Is that a chicken on wheels?"

He automatically covered the drawing with his hand, and regretted it soon after for how suspicious it made him look. Trying to brush the action off, he turned to face the girl. "It's a chicken on a rocket."

She pouted. "It didn't look like a rocket. It was a car, wasn't it?"

She really did know how to be persistent. Slowly, he handed her the paper as casually as he could manage. "It's a rocket car. Same thing, really. I'm not surprised you couldn't tell the difference."

Selphie took offense to that. Folding her arms, she leaned in closer as to not catch the teacher's attention. "I have something to show you, okay? Tidus can't come 'cause he has practice today. It's really important!"

"It better not be like the time you dragged me to the mainland just go to a new ice cream shop. I'm still paying off my parents for that, you know."

"This is serious!" she argued, her voice raising slightly. She quickly lowered it. "It's for science."

That made him feel better.

Yet, despite his protests, he still found himself waiting by the main gates for Selphie. He was already mentally beating himself up for agreeing on going when she arrived, breathing heavily. She probably ran from her last class to the spot-- although that really didn't explain why he made it before her. Before he could ask, she already walked through the gate.

"Come on, we have to get there before five," she shouted, quickening her pace.

He wasn't surprised at all that she led him to the train station. He watched her as she excitedly pressed her face against the window of the vehicle, wondering if Selphie would ever grow out of this weird fascination of hers. As if answering him, she began to bounce up and down.

"Where are we going?" he gave the other passengers a quick glance. "You haven't told me that yet."

The brunette smiled at him sheepishly. "I just wanted to go on the train."

Riku opened his mouth to yell at her, but the girl shook her head. "I'm kidding! I discovered something on my super secret mission, and needed to further investigate it. But it's no fun by myself, and since you and Sora are such good friends--"

"Wait," Riku was finally won over. "This has something to do with Sora?"

She didn't seem to notice his sudden interest, or else she ignored it. "He's been acting really weird lately, so Tidus and I decided to find out why. Er, I decided and dragged Tidus into it, but that's not the point. Anyway, ther-- oh, that's our stop."

Impatiently, he followed her out of the train and into a busy intersection. Selphie didn't continue with the topic, but instead focused on counting each store they passed by. It wasn't until they reached a flower shop that Riku realized she was looking at the address numbers, not counting.

"Is this it?" he frowned. What did a flower shop have anything to do with Sora? Then he saw it. A red convertible, sitting next to the curb by the shop. Riku wanted to check for the bumper sticker.

"Stop questioning me," Selphie moaned, pulling at his arm with one hand and using the other to push the door open. "This is a very big step forward in this case."

It was small inside, but that didn't matter much. The flora were arranged carefully throughout the room, with cozy little couches spread out throughout. There really didn't seem to be any point in having the seats, but they added a nice touch to the decor.

A woman in a pink dress welcomed them. "Hello, I'm Aerith. Thank you for coming today."

--

Sora squirmed in his seat. He wasn't sure if Cloud noticed; the sunglasses the blonde wore obscured his eyes, much to Sora's displeasure. He liked his eyes. Shaking his head, he went back to looking out the window. He was on his way to Kairi's house when he ran into Cloud. Well, Cloud almost ran into him. Same difference.

"I'm really sorry about that," Cloud sighed. "But why were you walking in the street? There's a sidewalk, you know."

"I didn't want to be late," Sora pointed at the dashboard. "Why are we in this one?"

"A friend of mine had to borrow my car for the week," he replied. "This is Leon's. Where are you going?"

Sora let out the most dramatic groan he could muster. "I have to help Kairi clean out her garage. Her cat is probably going to be there the whole time, it really hates me."

"Oh," Cloud was quiet for a moment. "I can help."

Surprised, Sora just nodded in agreement. It wasn't until he was ringing the girl's doorbell that he realized that his whole cover was about to be blown. But before he could tell Cloud he changed his mind about him helping, the door opened. Kairi's eyes widened when she saw the older guy, but she covered that up with a smile.

"Hey," she opened the door fully. "Are you a friend of Sora's?"

Cloud shrugged. "I guess. Cloud Strife."

"Kairi!" She peered around them to steal a look at the car. "Huh, I guess you're not the infamous Chocoboman then."

Sora and Cloud shared the same confused expression, but she just laughed and ushered them inside the house. Sora followed the two as they continued to introduce themselves to each other. After seeing them interact, he wasn't really sure why he kept Cloud a secret from his friends. Even though it was mainly Kairi who did all the talking, them seemed to get along fine. Cloud even laughed at one of her bad jokes.

What was he so nervous about?

Maybe he was just selfish, and didn't want to share his new friends. But that couldn't be right. He frequently daydreamed of all of them going out together; Leon attempting to ignore the combine attacks of Selphie and Yuffie, that Aerith girl being introduced to Wakka, and Riku gloating over beating him in a race. Kairi would clap for him anyway, and Cloud would tell him good job.

At that moment, his vision turned dark as something attached itself to his face. And it had claws. Yelling, he unsuccessfully tried to pry the creature off. He could hear Kairi crying out his name, and hurried footsteps. Just when Sora thought that his last moments of life would involve fur being shoved down his lungs, he was free.

Cloud stood in front of him, holding a struggling cat in his arms. Handing the pet to Kairi, who immediately began to scold it, Cloud gave the brunette a quick look over.

"Just a few scratches," he observed. His forehead was wrinkling in concentration, and Sora thought that he suddenly looked older. He suddenly wanted to trace his fingers along the lines. He started to reach his hand out, but the blonde's face relaxed. "I guess you were right about the cat hating you."

They didn't notice the set of eyes watching them.


End file.
